plain-spokenadj.

1582 W. Allen Briefe Hist. Glorious Martyrdom sig. cij His keeper..said plainely, he had before a Sainct in his keeping, & now a Diuel: for which speach the plaine spoken man was shent.

1616 T. Granger Pauls Crowne of Reioycing 58 Hee could be no scholler, because hee was so plaine spoken.

1692 J. Dryden All for Love (new ed.) Pref. sig. b2 A plain-spoken honest man.

1719 J. Addison Late Tryal & Conviction Count Tariff 2 Goodman Fact is allowed by Every Body to be a plain-spoken Person, and a Man of very few Words.

1772 J. W. Fletcher Logica Genevensis vii. 103 The Creed of an honest, consistent, plain-spoken Calvinist.

1814 J. Austen Mansfield Park I. ix. 194 I am a very matter of fact, plain spoken being. View more context for this quotation

1853 W. M. Thackeray Eng. Humourists v. 236 A hearty, plain-spoken man, loving his laugh, his friends, his glass, his roast-beef of Old England.

1884 L. J. Jennings in Croker Papers I. ii. 54 [He] was much too sincere and plain-spoken to be a model courtier.

1935 H. A. Foster Making of Mod. Iraq iv. 84 The British, always critical and plainspoken as to their government, now sought to analyze the whole situation.

1990 Entertainm. Weekly 20 Apr. 28/4 Koch is bracingly plainspoken by the mealymouthed standards of current political discourse.

1658 G. Wither Salt upon Salt 49 Plain spoken Truths, which would to them Have brought salvation.

1770 G. Boyce Serious Reply John Wesley 13 The express and plain-spoken words of the Scriptures.

1836 H. Taylor Statesman xxxi. 238 A rough, bluff, hearty, plain-spoken way of eulogising them to their faces.

1869 E. A. Freeman Hist. Norman Conquest III. xii. 106 He seems to have used language nearly as plain-spoken as Tostig did two years later.

1881 A. Trollope Dr. Wortle's School II. v. 90 No doubt the insinuations, if true,—or if of such kind as to be worthy of credit with your lordship, whether true or false,—were severe, plain-spoken, and damning.

1927 Dict. National Biogr. 1912–21 at Chamberlain, Joseph On 4 May Milner, in a powerful and plain-spoken telegram, stated the case for intervention.

1939 Times Lit. Suppl. 7 Jan. 4/4 A novel with real characters, who, however, are not likely on that account to prosecute him for libel, despite his plain-spoken exposure of their vie intime.

1983 R. W. Oram in Amer. Notes & Queries 21 109/1 Orwell avoids direct literary allusions that would have clashed with the plainspoken style of ‘A Hanging’.